[@Tlazolteotl]

Charlie had a surprised look on her face yet she understood what the bartender was saying. The original William Birkin and the clone. In many ways, they were different people. And, yet, they were the same. It reminded her of the old "Ship Of Theseus" paradox. If you gradually replaced the parts of a ship over time, would it still be the same ship?

That same paradox could be applied to people. To Charlie, the answer was simple. Yes and no. People grow, change, cells form and die, skin and hair is shed. Yet, that didn't completely change who they are. If anything, it helped to shape them, hone their traits. In the end, for everything that changed, there were things that were undeniably them.

The bartender's words also applied to people's perspective of William. To those like Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, he was little more than a mindless beast. Sherry saw him as a neglectful father. Umbrella saw him as both a brilliant researcher and disposable at the same time.

Charlie's Will had the memories of the original. Had his personality. Had his features. But, there were differences. Those proverbial piece of a ship that were replaced. Her Will could control his forms. He could willingly shift between forms, from human to quadrupedal beast with massive teeth to a tentacled blob that was mostly muscle and fat. Neither monster nor human, but something else. Something new yet familiar.

Golgotha. That was the name they decided for what Birkin and his offspring would be called. She was aware of how grotesque others saw his other forms. But, to her, he was still Will. He was still her friend, her work partner, her....

"Will?" she asked Birkin, "Is....Is that really you? I mean, you're not just some weird bar hallucination, or I'm not drunk and imagining things? If it's really you...we need to talk. There's something I need to tell you..."

Charlie braced herself for whatever response William was about to say. She silently hoped it was really him. That she had found him again after all that time.